Onward, Fallcrest

Saving the world, one dead Kobold at a time

The party lights a torch and proceeds down a stairway into a natural-looking cavern with large sheet of ice on the floor. John hears some breathing and so the party is on guard but a large White Dragon still gets the drop on them, stunning the group with its frightful presence and blasting them with cold breath. After a round the party recovers from being shaken but some are still slowed and weakened. The dragon leads them across the ice where it can move unhindered but David draws most of his attacks away from the others and they soon surround the beast. When bloodied, it goes berserk and breaths its icy breath on them again but this time misses everyone in range. The party perseveres and finally brings the dragon down after expending nearly all their power.
They find a locked chest which they are unable to open so they decide to take it back to Fallcrest, as it presumably contains the Green Dragon hide they are after. John decides to skin the white dragon and take its hide with them back to town and find a buyer.

Back in town, they head to Naerumar’s Imports, a place known for moving some unusual merchandise. The owner, Orest Naerumar, is satisfied that they got the chest fair and square and pops the lock with little difficulty. He “buys” a single pearl from the chest at 10gp as payment (valued at about 20) and tells the party to come back anytime. Inside the chest they also find the green dragon hide, 100 gold pieces, and a finely crafted sword, seemingly of ancient origin and quite definitely magical.

They then go to Teldorthan’s Arms and collect the 200 gold promised by Teldorthan Ironhews, the Dwarven proprietor. He also gives them 50gp for the white dragon hide.

The party decides to camp out for the night and recover some of their strength before pressing deeper into the catacombs. Outside the manor they find the body of the escaped Kobold “Yak”, still bound and with a note pinned to him reading, “Death to Skullkickers” in Draconic. Soon, they notice they are not alone and a band of rival Kobolds appear and try to shake them down for the loot they’ve gotten from the Skullkicker tribe. The team calls their bluff and so a fight ensues, with most of the Kobolds soon dead but one runs off into the forest. John tracks him in dark with some difficulty but manages to find him and finish him off before he can bring reinforcements. The party then beds down for the night and sleeps undisturbed.

Next morning they head back into the tombs and enter a room with a rolling boulder trap. David and Hamani are knocked down but get up to confront some hidden Kobold minions. Fred makes his way to the far end of the room and gets into it with a Kobold sorcerer and his guards, lurking at the top of some stairs. The rest of the group joins the fight and takes out the sorcerer fairly quickly but his guards put up a longer fight. Eventually they find themselves outmatched and dispatched. This room seems to be the end of the line but some searching turns up a secret door, opened by a silver key on the sorcerer’s body. They open it to feel a chill blast of air and a dark corridor…

The party interrogates their prisoner who tells them quite willingly to beware the dart traps in the next room. John and Fred easily lift the portcullis bars and knowing they’re expected, the party ties up the kobold and drags him along. They find what looks like a tomb, with 4 caskets and some niches in the walls. At the far end, the kobold who had previously gotten away waits with three others for the group to approach. Fred charges and sets off one dart trap but spots another one just in time. With a safe path identified, the rest of the party soon join Fred and make pretty short work of the kobold skirmishers (the sling-bearer escapes once again, as does their captive). They disable the traps and find the coffins empty of anything valuable. They do find 60 gold pieces left as an offering at the crude shrine to Tiamat the kobolds added to the room.

The group moves to the next room which features another pit of goo and some raised platforms on either side of some wooden double-doors. The kobolds on the platform attempt to hit the party with a sticky stone attached via rope to the ceiling (looks like they use this to play some kind of game with skulls stacked around the pit). Hamani readies an action to cut through the rope but doesn’t manage to hack through in one hit. She attempts to intimidate the kobolds into surrender, telling them they’ll break down the door and kill them all. The kobolds don’t seem to worry and reply, “You won’t like what’s on the other side!”. The party pretty quickly amasses at the doors while the kobolds try to hit them with javelins and sling bullets. John stays behind and uses his bow to target the creatures. After a few blows the doors splinter and two drakes attack Hamani and Fred. They’re tough critters but the group brings them down and proceeds through the door to mop up the remaining kobolds. In a corner of one platform they find 100gp in coins, a ruby worth 50gp, and two garnets worth 25gp each (200 gp total).

At this point the party has also amassed 1,725 experience points between them.

The kobold tribes of the Cloak Wood have are getting bolder and have begun raiding the trade caravans along the King’s Road. Teldorthan Goldcap, A dwarven armorer of Fallcrest, has engaged the party to track down a cured green dragon hide which he had purchased to make into some fine scale armor. The party enters the abandoned mansion now known as “Kobold Hall” in search of the stolen hide.

Finding their way into the vaults beneath the ruined structure, they immediately spot a kobold and Hamani is first to rush in. More kobolds spring out of the shadows and attack, one of them sticking Hamani to the floor with a “glue shot” from its sling. The rest of the party speed in and start dealing with the kobolds. Fred quickly kills one and several are marked by David, fouling up their plans to gang up on John. John grabs one wounded kobold and throws him into a trench in the center of the room, which is filled with a sticky green goo. Hamani, though still stuck, intimidates the trapped kobold into surrendering, as the last of its comrades in the room is killed. Meanwhile, the original kobold slinger retreats down a corridor behind a portcullis, deeper into the vaults.